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  • Our Voice Matters: Young people’s views on the Online Safety Bill

Our Voice Matters

Young people’s views on the Online Safety Bill

In partnership with TalkTalk, we reached out to young people and their parents to get their perspectives on the proposed Online Safety Bill.

 

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Young people discuss what they want from the Online Safety Bill

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Our Voice Matters: Young people’s views on the Online Safety Bill

Key Findings

The positives and negatives of being online

Young people felt that the online world was more of a positive than negative force in their lives. Most of the key negative impacts can be seen as
the “other side of the coin” to the positives:

  • The potential for misinformation and fake news
  • Feeling a lack of control over the amount of time they spend online
  • The risks of connecting with people they didn’t know offline (although this was discussed to a lesser extent than the other two).

A key area of concern for both boys and girls was the impact of extreme content promoting unrealistic beauty standards, and the implications for young people’s body image and mental health.

Response to key elements of the Bill

The young people felt that on the whole it was right for illegal harms to be given more weight than legal harms. There was also consensus across the group that paid for advertising should be within scope of the Bill, including scam ads but also genuine ads that could nevertheless be harmful.

There was a feeling that despite being a positive step forward, lots more work was needed on the Bill. Young people cited privacy as a top priority and were  interested to discuss how the Bill would impact on this.

Implications for the Online Safety Bill

This research highlights three priority areas for young people where the Online Safety Bill needs close attention:

  • Legal but harmful content: The Bill should adopt a wider definition of content harmful to children, explicitly referring to content which is harmful to children’s safety but also their wellbeing.
  • Paid for advertising: Policymakers and parliamentarians should scrutinise the Government’s plans for online advertising in tandem to their  scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill, ensuring that the two programmes are aligned.
  • Privacy: The Online Safety Bill needs to align closely with the Age Appropriate Design Code, and the new online safety regime will need to be implemented in a way that reinforces young people’s privacy rather than compromising it.

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More to explore

See related advice and practical tips to support children online:

  • Advice for 14+ year olds
  • Fake news
  • Inappropriate content resources
  • Privacy & Identity theft resources
  • Self-harm resources
  • Social media safety
  • Socialising online safely

On site links

  • Listening to the unheard voices of online safety
  • Online Safety Bill: what parents and carers can expect
  • Protect your child’s data

Related Web Links

Teenagers tell MPs that they back increased internet regulation

The TalkTalk Group

  • Online issues
  • Cyberbullying
  • Inappropriate content
  • Sexting
  • Self-harm
  • Screen time
  • Radicalisation
  • Online grooming
  • Online pornography
  • Online reputation
  • Privacy and identity theft
  • Advice by age
  • Pre-school (0-5)
  • Young children (6-10)
  • Pre-teen (11-13)
  • Teens ( 14+)
  • Setting controls
  • Smartphones and other devices
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  • Gaming platform & other devices
  • Social media privacy guides
  • Entertainment & search engines
  • Connecting Safely Online
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